#juli reads redacted

[titsthedamnseason]

ITS OVER

[pepprs]

tfw im taking a day off of work today (my first day off since december 😍😍😍😍) and got absolutely shit sleep w fucked up dreams i kept waking up from and just woke up to a text about the stupid fucking book chapter asking me to do one more read through of it as if i haven’t done like 5 in theladt 3 days (and by all appearances been the ONLY one doing so lol)

[krytus]

i might have bought a domain name.... and started working on a website.... for my gay little knight story..... it might be ready by the end of the month 😳

[maraczeks]

+

[garagepaperback]

absolutely love your fic recs omg! do you have any recs for authors who are currently still active? i'll read anything but i'm a big fan of stories that take their time and have a slow slow slow burn.

aww thank you for the ask! here are some of my top-tier favorites from ~active~ authors, varying degrees of slow burn:

probationary action - @toomuchplor

this fic is like being in a carnival funhouse where the walls are writhing, panting, dumb-hot, rigorously perfect smut and then slowly, slowly, you recognize all the mirrors and the warped floor are actually soft, glancing sentiment and crisp prose and then you make it back outside to a big, real, aching world. in the parking lot you will have also important thoughts about the punitive justice system.

Harry breathes out a sigh, dropping his face into the open palms of his hands. “Thank Merlin for you, Neville,” Harry says, looking up again. “You really are the best of all of us.” “I’m not,” says Neville, “but I do want to see you happy, Harry.” Harry reaches out and squeezes Neville’s shoulder fondly. “It must be very interesting, dating Malfoy,” says Neville, standing up. “He uses a lot of sex spells, doesn’t he.”

la, who am i to love you? - @epitomereally

a masterpiece! i'm actually getting sun-soaked dazed eyes just thinking about it. perfect, heat-scoured (the riddled-with-light skies! the la fires! the radiant blooming gardens! the fucking pool!) lush location, one of the most interesting takes, and still true-to-the-marrow depictions of harry, draco, pansy, luna - the list is endless. also so hot, and so dear. even the traffic feels dreamy.

“Maybe you could list the pros and cons of moving to LA for me, Harry,” Dr Goldstein prods. Uncomfortably, all Harry can think is Draco, Draco, Draco.

the july tree - @oknowkiss

:,) this is so sweet, fun, hot and adoring from another masterful prose-maker. everything that is glanced at feels so naturally done, the vividness creeps in before you're liable to fully realize you're in fact reading and not truly looking. explorative and understanding. 10/10, wonderful, a hundred gold stars.

His neck was in shambles from where it had been bent over to one side. He tried to move but there was a heavy weight on his shoulder. He looked down and saw Potter had fallen asleep on him. Potter’s hand had slipped between Draco’s legs, just above his knees, and then the train came to a stop and Potter woke up as well, lifting his head, his glasses slightly crooked. Draco wanted to go back an hour and keep himself awake, so that he could feel Potter on him, warm and heavy and unguarded. Instead he’d had only a few seconds before Potter sat up straight, stretching his arms overhead. He smiled at Draco before standing, resting his hand on top of Draco’s head as he walked by. It was lovely, and intimate, but all Draco could think of was the hour he’d slept through, an hour of time spent with Potter he wouldn’t ever get back, his brain repeating over and over, I missed it.

cut from the sky - @mallstars

so much of what i'm desperate to say about this fic is [redacted] for spoiler reasons! such a raw romance wound around an incredible, engaging, heart-stuttering plot. i'm jutting my lip out and there's a vacant ache in my ribs where my heart's supposed to be over this one. lovely, queer, splendid, just perfect. god.

"Please," Harry heard himself say, though he didn't quite know what he was asking. Draco kissed his forehead. "Of course," he replied. "What would you like?" Harry shivered, watching the runnels of water against Draco's flushed cheek. "Please," Harry said again, dropping his head against Draco's leather-clad shoulder, thinking of his hotel room, of stumbling into Draco's store tomorrow, calling him Malfoy and pretending his days didn't revolve entirely around him, "Please don't leave. Please don't leave just yet."

gallows-bird - @jtimu

i want to describe this one with eight knife emoji's and nothing more. four chapters in and every single one individually has ruined my day. it's wonderful, dreary, just enough gray that you'll wonder if the glint you thought you saw was hope or just a trick of the light. highly recommend, misery loves company, come on through.

There hadn’t ever been anyone to soothe Harry’s hurts. To fuss over his skinned knees or brush his hair back from his temples with tender thumbs, too coo softly over a scrape. Comfort was something he’d learned secondhand, dear and hard-bought, and so sat there with his fingers twisted together, knuckles like knotgrass, and tried to wrench the words out. He wanted to touch, instinct told him that much, but he lacked the framework for how and where, and so he didn’t, and they sat there together in a thorny silence.

from love, obviously - @starsworth

counting even though bizarrestars is writing mostly (lovely! gender-explorative! wonderful! wolfstar and also black familial fic currently) not drarry because just god damn. an essential read for me. weirdo, phenomenal draco and the best teddy in the game, easily. hilarious but in that way where your breath snags after laughing really hard and the moment sort of echoes.

"You were kissing," Teddy says. "I saw it."  Harry's eyes sink shut for a moment, and he drags a hand through his hair, which Draco may have accidentally made a mess of, then he blows out a deep breath and opens his eyes. "That's—well, that did happen, yes. That was…something we did."  Teddy's eyes narrow. "I thought you were mortal enemies."  "Mortal enemies kiss…sometimes," Harry says weakly, clearly out of his depth here. He grimaces almost immediately after he says this, then seems to remember he's the adult out of the two of them and coughs, standing up taller. "Nevermind that, you'll understand when you're older."

close behind - @oflights

oh my whole fucking heart. destroyed! adrift! she died how she lived. reading this feels like listening to music, something sleek and melodic, and when i actually consider the masterfully-rendered level of complexity in the plot, it feels like trying to peer into the belly of an actively-playing grand piano. certainly does not hurt to be an enormous fan of eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, orpheus and eurydice myth, and general suffering <3

“It’ll be all right,” Draco said again, and Harry swallowed the rest of his words. He couldn’t let them out here, in their bed, in their home; not yet. And his body didn’t know how to say what he wanted it to, not with Draco this close. Harry didn’t know how to tell Draco that they wouldn’t be all right, not in any language. Not yet.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading update: july 2024

full disclosure: I started out July in a bit of a mental lurch, really feeling stuck in a rut. there are a lot of reasons for that, absolutely none of which need to be shared with the general populace of tumblr dot com, but suffice to say that I was feeling listless and reading was not a high priority. I was pretty content to accept that this was going to be another month where I didn't finish a lot of books. I was too busy for most of June, and now too unfocused and bummed out in July.

and then that ended up not being the case. I think I can chalk that up to three things:

very early in the month I realized that none of the reading I had been planning on getting to was grabbing my interest at all, so I did something drastically different: picked up a YA memoir that I bought at pride on the recommendation of a bookseller. not my usual kind of reading at all, but YA is very readable and memoirs grab me fast because I'm nosy, so I figured it might be great for getting out of a rut. and boy, was I right!

Akwaeke Emezi also has a new novel out, and if you don't know then please note now that I'm a person second and an Akwaeke Emezi fan first. their newest novel was a sinister joyride, non-stop twists and turns that I couldn't put down until I saw the characters through to their bitter ends.

and, of course, over in the Dungeon Meshi manga I got to Mithrun. I've only had Mithrun for a couple of chapters, but if anything happened to him I'd kill everyone in this dungeon and then myself. even if I hadn't been able to read anything else, that would have kept me running back to the library for more Dungeon Meshi.

all of which added up to a fairly voracious appetite for books being reignited in my brain, and my second most book-heavy month of the year so far (still haven't beat May, but there's time). sick!

so - what have I been reading?

Delicious in Dungeon Vol. 7-10 (Ryoko Kui, trans. Taylor Engel, 2019-2022) - mannnnn I know I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said elsewhere, but Dungeon Meshi is so. fucking good. the way that Kui starts to raise the stakes of the story and grow the world beyond the core band of adventurers is so conscientious and well-done, timed perfectly so it never feels like having an undercooked heap of fantasy exposition thrown at you all at once. instead everything proceeds at a perfect simmer, leaving me feeling like the frog in that pot of boiling water who didn't notice how dire things had gotten until it was very suddenly too late and I was screaming bloody murder at a book. things have gotten so dire that I'm yearning for the days when fighting a red dragon was our biggest problem - and yet, through it all, every character remains rendered with humanity and compassion, no matter how scary, dangerous, or outright alien they first appear. I'm not naming any spoilers, but I need [REDACTED] to fix shit ASAP in Vol. 11 and [SUPER REDACTED] is on my shitlist fucking forever. also Mithrun sweetie you're perfect, do as many crimes as you want.

Heart and Hand (Rebel Carter, 2019) - my romance novel of the month, as picked by my lovely patreonites! this self-published historical romance promised some messy f/m/m, following a biracial (half Black, half white) young lady, Julie Baptiste, as she responds to a marriage ad that takes her out west to the fictional town of Gold Sky, Montana. Julie's sort of a standard historical heroine - she doesn't care for the silliness of high society and vastly prefers the company of books, looking forward to becoming Gold Sky's schoolteacher - but her marriage has a twist: rather than marrying one man, she's agreed to marry two, a pair of friends who have been inseparable since they served together in the Civil War. this book is charming, for sure, but I can't help be more intrigued by what isn't there than what is, namely: are these men having sex with each other or not? Rebel? hey, Rebel? why is there no DP in this two husbands mail order bride book? that was, like, he bare minimum that I expected. for the love of god, why did those men never put both of their dicks inside Julie at the same time? why did we spend so much time on emotional conflict that could be easily resolved if anyone just talked to each other when Julie's two beautiful husbands could have been having sex in front of her? HELLO?

also, listen, this is such a nitpick, but I am FROM Montana and it feels personal: I know that the general poverty of frontier life isn't sexy, but god these people are WAY too well off. at one point Julie enjoys some fucking BANANAS, something that I goddamn assure you were not easy to come by in late 19th century Montana. a banana. as fucking if.

All Boys Aren't Blue (George M. Johnson, 2020) - as is proudly advertised on the back cover of my copy, in recent years All Boys Aren't Blue has been the second most-challenged book in America behind Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer. reading through All Boys Aren't Blue it was initially hard to see what exactly was so objectionable, until I realized that a queer Black person living their life with compassion and joy is the scariest thing some of these motherfuckers can possibly imagine. Johnson writes about their life growing up in the nexus of racism, homophobia, and masculinity with wisdom and endless compassion, directly addressing young people who may find themselves in similar positions to offer them assurance that they, too, can be okay. more than anything, All Boys Aren't Blue is a plea for young people to live their lives without fear and shame. it's a beautiful blessing of a book that I hope brings comfort to every innumerable kids who need it.

Little Rot (Akwaeke Emezi, 2024) - how do I even begin to describe Little Rot? definitely not for those who feel squeamish about sex crimes, I guess that's an important place to start. this novel starts with the breakup of a long-term Nigerian couple, Kalu and Aima, and follows both of them into a weekend that starts with drugs and sex parties and spirals increasingly out of control from there, drawing more and more characters into a complicated snarl of money and power. Little Rot has the seedy, lurid draw of an episode of SVU if SVU ever grew up and realized that cops don't do shit, reveling in the nastiest that Emezi's imagined city of New Lagos has to offer. cannot say this book is for everyone - few of Emezi's novels are - but god, it's a thrilling study in corruption.

The Persistent Desire: A Femme-Butch Reader (editor Joan Nestle, 1992) - this is a massive and fascinating historical document, assembled by Nestle as part of her work with the Lesbian Herstory Archives. within this collection are letters, interviews, academic essays, poems, and transcribed oral histories from all manner of self-identified butch and femme lesbians. while some of the contributors are recognizable names in the history of American queer activism (including Pat Califa, who's a bisexual trans man now lmao), others are women who were just trying to live their lives with as much authenticity, comfort, and dignity as was possible in their time. (although, notably, the vast majority of these women are white, and all but a very few are Americans. racial and cultural diversity is not one of the collection's strong suits.)

the personal narratives span all over the twentieth century, and I was really delighted to see the very frank discussions of what would be written off as "bad representation" by a lot of queer resources today: butches overdosing on toxic masculinity and getting in messy bar brawls, femmes committing outlandish acts of adultery, lesbian sexual awakenings taking place between fairly young children, and one extremely memorable instance of a butch getting unexpectedly pregnant and decided to do a little sex work on the side since she couldn't get more pregnant than she already was. I was particularly fascinated by the many, many accounts of "second wave" self-identified lesbian feminists who tried to do away with butch/femme identities and "politically incorrect" expression of lesbian sexuality altogether (that's everything but mutual cunnilingus, btw) in pretty eerie echoes of contemporary radfem arguments. at close to 500 pages it's definitely better suited to skimming and stopping to read whatever catches your attention rather than trying to read cover to cover, but I think this is a really invaluable piece of history.

American Mermaid (Julia Langbien, 2023) - this was a novel, for sure. American Mermaid is a novel about a broke, anxious high school teacher named Penelope whose novel, also called American Mermaid, is a runaway success that gets optioned for film. Penelope quits her teaching job and moves across the country to Hollywood to work on the script with two dude bros who don't really Get what American Mermaid is about, and set to work turning Penelope's weird, unsexy female empowerment novel into an MCU-style action romp with a hot young lead. the novel's strongest when it's deep in the spirals of Penelope's frantic mind, probing the conflict between her fairly desperate need for cash (she wants to be financially independent of her conservative father, she has good reason to suspect breast cancer is in her future, she wants to start a family someday) and the artistic affront she feels at watching her story be disrespected and dismantled. where it's weaker is in the extensive chapters of the story-within-a-story; while useful for context, I straight up didn't need to read that much of Penelope's novel. and the plot overall kind of felt like it fell off the rails near the end once Langbien finishes making her point about how Hollywood sucks. it's not bad, but it's also just... fine. it's fine!

How to Taste: A Guide Discovering Flavor and Savoring Life (Mandy Naglich, 2023) - how do I put this so nicely? this book is for people who are kind of dork ass losers about food, a group that I do very much count myself as a part of. I first became acquainted with Naglich's work when she appeared on a podcast called the Sporkful, which claims that it is "not for foodies, it's for eaters." I'm a fairly devout listener, and after listening to Naglich describe her efforts to become a master cicerone (one of the world's most elite beer tasters, a distinction that is taken Very Fucking Seriously) I thought sure, whatever, that's a book I can get behind. Naglich is maybe a big more entertaining as a podcast guest than a nonfiction author. in places the book can be dry or roughly constructed in a way that suggests another pass by an editor or maybe a co-writer would have helped. and straight up, there are just weird fucking typos in this book that are like. crazy to me, I cannot believe they got through. the cheap-ass cover art also suggests this was not exactly a high budget production.

but having been very mean about it, there are a lot of extremely interesting tidbits about the world of professional tasting here! it sounds awful and you couldn't pay me to do it, but here's the cool thing: Naglich is extremely aware that what she does is insane and she knows that the average reader doesn't want to learn how to identify where a coffee bean was grown just by sniffing the bean from across a room. what she offers instead are really approachable ways to be more conscientious about how you interact with and appreciate food! and she also shares some really cool info about tasting snobbery that IS bullshit, to help you sort out the stuff that actually matters and emphasize that fun and personal taste ultimately trump any "rules." it's a very dorky book but I, personally, did have a good time.

Sex Criminals Vol 3: Three the Hard Way (Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky, 2016) - every time I read another volume of Sex Criminals I find myself thinking "man, hang on, do I ever actually like Sex Criminals? am I enjoying this?" but then I end up placing a hold on the next one. I don't know, it's charming! it's like so very VERY 2010s in its dialogue, by which I mean it's like. you know. it's giving Joss Whedon before we all found out how bad he sucked and collectively booed him. but man, I love a story that's down to get weird, and Sex Criminals is sooooo about being weird. and yet also very normal where sex is concerned! considering this is a series all about people having freaky world-altering powers that activate when they cum, sex is treated as an incredibly ordinary thing, warts and all. I like that! I like seeing that! idk, I don't need every comic to be perfect, as evidenced by the fact that I'm actively enjoying Azrael: Angel of the Bat. sometimes the vibes are just good.

[moongirlwidow]

File: Volkov, Vespera Anetka

Alias: Winter Widow

Status: classified

File Last updated: July 4, 2023 AD

———

Age: 15

Class: 16ABX

Graduation Year: 2023

Origin: Romania

Birthday: August 11, 2008

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Handlers: Krista Udova(62431), Milunka Dulovna(90218), Melina Vostokov(Iron Maiden)

Trainers: Winter Soldier(Barnes, James B.), Taskmaster(Dreykov, Antonia)

Track: Field Agent(undercover; weapons specialist)

Appearance

Eye color: gray

Hair color: black

Skin: white; pale

Build: tall, lean, bony

Height: 5’9.79”

Weight: 101.235lbs

Notable markings:

birthmark;right thigh back, oblong Burn scar; left ankle, inside, 4”x 3”x 9”

Specialty Training

- Figure Skating

Began: 2 years

Training time: 6hrs every other day, 17hrs every Thursday and Monday

On track to the Winter Olympic Games. Reliably lands quads, possible pairing with Hydra 20180 for pair skating.

- Deadlift

Began: 6 years

Training time: 1hr daily

Will reach national record by 2028

Current capacity: 480lbs

- Combat Mimicry

Began: 7 years

Can mimic opponent’s fighting style closely. Taught by Taskmaster

- Biochemistry

- Codebreaking

- linguistics

Languages

Spoken: Russian, English, Norwegian, Welsh, Polish, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Qubecois, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek, Greek, Old English, Cantonese, Japanese, German, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Korean, Swedish, Hindi, Punjabi, Pennsylvania Dutch and Scots Gaelic

Written: braille, Russian, English, Norwegian, Welsh, Polish, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Qubecois, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek, Greek, Old English, Cantonese, Japanese, German, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Korean, Swedish, Hindi, Punjabi, Pennsylvania Dutch and Scots Gaelic

Read: braille, Russian, English, Norwegian, Welsh, Polish, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Qubecois, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek, Greek, Old English, Cantonese, Japanese, German, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Korean, Swedish, Hindi, Punjabi, Pennsylvania Dutch and Scots Gaelic

Other: American Sign Language, Russian Sign Language, International Sign, Morse code

Status

[section redacted]

Role

- replace the Iron Maiden following graduation

- should Taskmaster Program default, replace Winter Soldier and Taskmaster

- restore Red Academy-HYDRA control over XXXXXXXXX

Miscellaneous

— favored by Lt.Borisov

- Untouchable Status — RE; Grad Mission

- Enforced Separations — not allowed with peers without supervision, initiated 2015

- extremely exemplary when undercover in Queer Rebellion Groups, Lesbian Covers reccomended

Graduation Mission Assign.

Seduce XXXX XXXXXXX as debutant Gabrielle La Aubrey(CF61789), knock out with C19JL1990 formula(oral component), identify and procure XXXXXX XXXXX through whirlwind romance focusing on subject’s romantic beliefs. XXXXXXX has taste for young virgin women, will have just inherited full title/shares; foolish party persona crafted. Deep Cover in France; 6 weeks, fake family emergency and return with items. (Summary)

Part II

[real-mr-grizz]

GRIZZCO EMPLOYEES OF THE MONTH

congratulations to all the hard working employees, but mostly these four

MIA HYDE(@mcsnaughzz):

nominated for their quickness and making sure they're always supporting at the basket, coworkers have reported seeing MIA eating salmon, DISGUSTING, but that's just the kind of brutality we need at GrizzCO.

SOLAR(@glowstickspinalfluid):

SOLAR is a day 1 GrizzCo employee, and i must say we've been keeping an eye on their work, they're an excellent well rounded employee, we've been especially proud of their preformance against the triumvirate.

INKY(@princelydelinquents):

Known for being a true slayer of salmonids, and a reckle- COUGH COUGH, sorry we meant to say relentless worker at GrizzCo, our files say they preformed greatly during big runs, proving to be a real hero.

KAITLYN KUROIWA(@kutekitty-43):

A lovely roller main who's secretly a salmon killing monster behind those innocent eyes, and their achievements come from sheer numbers, and we may or may not have them under our personal company watch-list, just in case they decide to go rouge.

TOP SECRET MISSION FILES

MISSION NAME: KODE KOI

DETAILS: Four exceptionally talented employees at GrizzCo were tasked with taking out [REDACTED], without causing any commotion or public outcry, they were to infiltrate the home base of the target and swiftly eliminate them.

The mission started the on the night of July 5th, and came to a close the next morning, July 6th, and was considered an absolute failure

FINAL RESULTS: All four employees were killed, and the target remains mostly unharmed

(there is a sticky note written is messy handwriting reading the following):

I DONT CARE WHAT THIS THING IS, IT IS A DANGER TO THE COMPANY, GET RID OF IT.

[syn4k]

HAPPY JEEKEND (joe hills weekend)

joe hills (any pronouns) has been a member of the hermitcraft server since 2012 and, while having one of the smallest subscriber counts of any of the Hermits, coincidentially happens to be one of the most criminally underrated!

a cool few things that she does:

records all of his episodes live on stream, which usually run daily in the mornings and/or evenings

every $20 he gets goes towards their own necessities and also a facecam expansion!

parents a kid whilst doing hermitcraft full-time

writes poetry and often reads it aloud on stream

did a pinball meetup a few weeks ago and i went there and gave him a fic i wrote about her (with its permission) and xy said it was cool

has written fanfiction about beeself and also the rest of the Hermitcraft server and has done so for about a decade at this point

is right here on Tumblr as @joehills!

won the 2023 MCYTblr Sexyman Tournament

pays every one of her moderators a living wage per hour which you will be hard pressed to find elsewhere online

has a fantastic accent and a very unique way of doing things (often referred to as the Joe Hills Differerence) which is well worth checking out

currently faer in a bit of a rough spot financially so if you want to help zym out, you can donate to her at paypal.me/joehills, patreon.com/joehills, or send a Superchat the next time they're live on YouTube!

as his sister cheerfully proclaims in Redacted Hills Sings Joe Hills, go bingewatch Joe!

(July 29th and 30th are part of the Joe Hills Weekend, in which we as a community take the oppurtunity to help a great person out! It also coincides with the Hermitcraft Stream Weekend, which Joe will be hosting on a stream later.)

[orangedodge]

What's going on with the X-Men relaunch?

When they first used the Infinity Comic to reset Charles and Alex to their pre-Fall of X versions, I didn't think it was that big of a problem. Charles isn't appearing in comics at the moment, and the fact is that no one really cares about Alex Summers anyway. But Magneto is core cast of the flagship title. Fundamental alterations to his status quo need to be covered in that publication, not preempted by however many months in advance with digital only content that most readers will never even know exists. Even leaving aside inherent scumminess of paywalling required supplementary content, there's no indication anywhere in X-Men that you need to go open Marvel Unlimited if you want the full backstory.

This isn't the only mess they've gotten into with digital content since July. Previously, they spent two months inserting blank pages into the print and kindle editions of all of their comics, that could only be redeemed for a final page on the Marvel app. Before finally backtracking they spent two months fighting their fans on social media, and insisting that these pages were only fun bonus that you didn't have to worry about. Yet several titles used them to introduce their respective villains, and the X-Force relaunch chose to simply redact the actual final page of the issue, for phone readers only.

It's just not a fun way to read things. No one wants to have to put down a physical comic, or close out kindle, and then go open a separate app on their Apple/Android device to finish the story. Or to have to remember to check Marvel Unlimited every Tuesday for weekly backup strips to find out what's going on with the co-lead of the comic they're already paying for. I've seen it suggested that these amount to schemes by the publisher to get more people to install Marvel's various phone apps, and that's probably true, but whatever inanity is going on behind the scenes there is at least some measure of obligation on the part of the editors to not make the rollout so intrusive. The actual comics need to at least be readable.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

S.V. Dáte at HuffPost:

WASHINGTON ― When Donald Trump was told by a White House aide that his own vice president, Mike Pence, had to be evacuated from the Senate on Jan. 6, 2021, for his own safety following an inflammatory tweet from Trump, the former president had but a two-word response: “So what?” The anecdote was among hundreds of pieces of evidence gathered by federal prosecutors into a 165-page court filing, unsealed Wednesday, in their four-count felony prosecution against Trump for his actions leading up to and during his coup attempt.

“This motion provides a comprehensive account of the defendant’s private criminal conduct; sets forth the legal framework created by Trump for resolving immunity claims; applies that framework to establish that none of the defendant’s charged conduct is immunized because it either was unofficial or any presumptive immunity is rebutted; and requests the relief the government seeks, which is, at bottom, this: that the court determine that the defendant must stand trial for his private crimes as would any other citizen,” special counsel Jack Smith wrote. The question of immunity became critical thanks to a July Supreme Court ruling stating that all official acts done by a president are immune from prosecution, but left it to the trial court to determine whether Trump’s attempt to remain in power were “official.” “The answer to that question is no,” Smith argued. The filing was unsealed by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, the judge in the case. It can be read��here. Trump’s lawyers had argued that everything their client did leading up to Jan. 6 was covered by the Supreme Court ruling, and requested that Chutkan not allow the public to see any of the evidence Smith has collected against Trump.

Chutkan rejected that and, in a order also filed Wednesday, ruled that Smith would be permitted to file a version of his brief with some names and details redacted. Wednesday’s brief by Smith is riddled with blacked-out words and phrases in the section providing the narrative of the indictment. Much of the information in the filing was known previously, thanks largely to the work of the House Jan. 6 Committee, albeit in broader strokes. But key players in Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss and remain in office did not cooperate with that committee. They did, however, honor prosecutors subpoenas. Pence — a crucial witness, as Smith’s brief makes clear almost from the start — had repeatedly told Trump he had lost and to look ahead to 2024 instead. On Nov. 12, during a private lunch with Trump, Pence “reiterated a face-saving option for the defendant: ‘don’t concede but recognize the process is over.’” In another private lunch on Dec. 21, Pence ”‘encouraged’ the defendant ‘not to look at the election “as a loss ― just as an intermission.”’”

[...] “If Pence would not do as he asked, the defendant needed to find another way to prevent the certification of Biden as president. So on January 6, the defendant sent to the Capitol a crowd of angry supporters, whom the defendant had called to the city, and inundated with false claims of outcome determinative election fraud, to induce Pence not to certify the legitimate electoral votes and to obstruct the certification.”

Trump sent out a tweet telling his followers that Pence had lacked “the courage” to do as he was told at 2:24 p.m., which was followed by a surge of his supporters into the Capitol. A minute later, Pence had to be moved by his Secret Service detail to a secure location. As Pence came within yards of Trump’s angry mob, the president demonstrated his unconcern for his running mate’s life. As Smith’s brief details, Trump was just as unbothered by safety concerns in the run-up to Jan. 6. When a campaign aide warned a Trump operative ― both of whose names have been blacked out ― that attempts to block vote counting in Detroit could lead to unrest, the operative responded “Make them riot” and “Do it!!!”

A 165-page brief in United States v. Trump was unsealed yesterday, and it revealed that Donald Trump dismissed the danger to Mike Pence’s livelihood for refusing to go along with Trump’s plan to overturn the election with a “so what?” response.

The filing revealed that a Trump operative yelled “make them riot” and “do it” when reminded of the fact that blocking the certification would lead to unrest.

These filings are yet more proof that domestic terrorist insurrection-inciter Trump is NOT fit to hold the Presidency.

See Also:

The Guardian: Special counsel reveals new details of Trump bid to overturn 2020 election

[titsthedamnseason]

this is the longest book i’ve ever read omfg. this battle has been going on forever and there’s no sign of it ending and IM. SO. BORED. i genuinely do not care if ANY of these people live or die i don’t care what the outcome will be (we all know they’ll win 🙄) the action is written so poorly i have been forcing myself to read it every day for weeks now but i swear it puts me to sleep every time i pick it up. i have to keep reading it because i want it to be over already but it’s so difficult omfg

[discordantwords]

fic recs - july & august 2023

Here are some of the (completed) fics that I've enjoyed over the last two months. I'm admittedly very behind in my reading at the moment, so if there's anything that I've missed that should be on my radar, please feel free to send some recs my way!

Adrift by BakerTumblings

Indelible by insistentbass

Interlude by johnwatso

Matters of the Hart by Enterthetadpole & WritingOutLoud

New Year by Calais_Reno

Occupational Hazard by Enterthetadpole & WritingOutLoud

People We Love by Calais_Reno

Sentiment. REDACTED. by amyreadsandstresses

Strange Company by emilycare

Surprise by JRow

The Adventure of Lord Grey and the Yellow Bird by standbygo

The Adventure of the Last Will and Testament by JRow

The Very Best of Times by Calais_Reno

Happy reading!

[acheronist]

ok its after 8pm time for my nightly gladman point skeleton posting power hour. welcome to speculation city

june 1845 - sept 1845, henry making idle notes about how the expedition's going because well. yes. of course

1846 - henry gets really into bullet journaling in the first winter wherein the ships are docked in devon harbor/beechey island. also it's cold as fuck and he's starting to realize it's gonna be cold as fuck for a long while yet, and after recently rekindling a relationship Of Some Kind with tom armitage, he starts getting nostalgic about partying in venezuela when he was 23 which is funny because on one hand we have very hard ground to heave on the morrow (gravedigging, hauling to the cairn, etc) but also omgggg do you remember stuart the shipcat he was the best. that party ruled does anyone else remember how fun that nye party was!!!

april 1847 - after months of teaching his good friend tom armitage his letters (finally), tom manages to get a parody flirty smutty version of barry cornwall's 'the sea' written down after henry had recited it aloud from memory and henry is so proud about how quickly tom's taken to writing after 40 something years of adamantly refusing to learn, that he keeps the page in his wallet

june 1847 - sir john dies and henry decides to take some asides about the funeral speech, presumably under the impression that they'd get home again at some point and he could decipher it and make it presentable later. officers do seem to be dropping quite quickly though and the inclination that things might not be working out excellently starts around here.

july thru dec 1847 - the terror camp in cape felix is established and henry overhears calls that camp is clear over and over and over enough times that he thinks its worth writing down while doing his silly spiral doodles to pass the time in the evenings

spring 1848 - the crews abandon the ships for real this time and the fear that he's not getting out of the arctic alive starts to feel more and more real each day, and in a vague attempt to keep himself from being lost and forgotten to history, he writes down a frantic account of his navy career in his cleanest neatest most legible handwriting possible. for future searchers to be able to read. also, messages get passed between erebus camp and terror camp and the men are inventing fake addresses for the letters between camps for...... whimsy? missing london society? i dont know

end of 1848 - the Unwellnesses and the Agonies are really settling in amongst the whole crew but hey. at least he still has the brain power for poems written backwards.

early 1849 - powering thru this dismal ass expedition's survival attempts based on absolutely nothing but the desperate nostalgia of being young and sexy and warm. thank goodness tom armitage is still here to help him remember specific details about the clubs in the caribbean. and we are simply too tired to continue the backwards code, but no one's pawing through his personals anyways, it hardly matters

mid to late 1849 - henry dies from [REDACTED] and tom armitage takes it upon himself to carry henry's wallet and pages forward south with the expedition because it would be impossible to carry his actual physical corpse with them because everyone else, himself included, are too weak and sick for such a thing. theyve been leaving their dead behind since they were at beechey, what makes henry's remains so special and different? the survivors keep heading south along the coastline of king william island

spring 1850 - the expedition, lead by aglooka, camp briefly nearby some inuit families. they stay in one place for quite a while, and tom armitage decides they're so fucking cooked and never getting off this island. he doesn't have the supplies or means to write anything to add to the wallet, so he does his best at identifying himself by getting dressed in his steward uniform, some things that were relevant to being a steward, henry's wallet, henry's shirt with the ink stains on the cuff, and walks off to the ocean shoreline until he drops dead and falls face down with the wallet underneath his chest to keep it safe from the arctic elements

1859 - mcclintock's search party stumbles across his skeleton on accident while looking for a cairn and go WHOAAAAA ITS A SKELETON and lift the steward tools + henry's wallet out from his ribs and take them back to england to be archived

1973 - the 1st battalion rcr goes back to doublecheck mcclintock's notes and go WHOAAAAA ITS A SKELETON and lay what remains of tom out on a plywood board from a hardware store and snap some pics. then they pack him up and mail his bones to the national museum of man & then the museum loses his bones

2018 - amc gives this storyline to a 26 year old from the opposite ship who had no prior history with henry for some reason and also demotes it to a sub-sub-plot. i dont know. smashing my head through a wall.

2022 - doug stenton shows up and says hey ummmm should we be more concerned about the fact that the entire fucking skeleton went missing. let me do some research i guess

2024 - i show up and start connecting the dots while working on the facsimile project of the papers. henry's fate still unknown. tom's bones still missing in action. the actual papers hidden behind an unbearably steep paywall thats gonna take me a decade to afford. facsimile project kind of overshadowed by jfj cannibalism confirmation on the same day. i keep being crazed on my blog anyways.

ok yay

[c0smicdrift3r]

There are more than stars in the sky

You dont know who i am, and trust me thats for the best. I’m just a noboby that happens to see things normal people aren't meant to see. Things that the entirety of nasa and any other acrynomn of letters of the government body has been hiding from people like you, the common folk. They've already prepared their ways of getting off our little and feeble planet we call home. But let me just tell you it won't matter where they go. Eventually it will all be taken away, whatever they build elsewhere in the cosmos.

My job was to look at all the info and pictures of anomalies in space with other scientists, and to make sure none were a threat to earth,  such as incoming asteroids and large foreign bodies in space. We've all heard of such things at this point, of potential asteroids and large meteors that are going to hit our little planet and destroy us, but that it won't be for millions of years.

Believe me when I say I've seen all of the small objects, asteroids, and comets that have had a close trajectory to our home. It's our job to keep an eye on it. But none of them could ever be compared to what I found, let alone by accident… I wish... I never did find it. I could have lived in bliss until the end of my days.

But I did find it, and I'm the only one who saw it for what it was… a threat to our planet.  Or so I thought. But I might as well entertain you with the tale of my findings since once you read this whole document you'll wish you hadn't.

It had started off as a normal day, the usual pulling up of files and data on the previous night crews findings on our telescope, we call her selene. She is how we have a job where we can make some sort of small impact, otherwise we wouldn't  have a job. Its real name is redacted, due to the government and that it has to be a secret project and all. You have to love the men in suits and their secrets.

But back to the story.  So it was a usual day. The date was July (redacted) of 2017. I know it's in the past, you don't have to point it out to me. But I'm telling it how it was that day. It was a normal day, me working with my team and looking at data that we had collected from the previous shifts team, and that's when I noticed one of our celestial bodies we keep an eye on was gone. It was there and in the next frame it was gone. I'm gonna clarify here, our telescope, our selena, takes images of the sky and the pattern of the stars every hour. It was over three images, I'm now positive I saw the death of a star and system.

 I had to call my colleagues over to make sure I hadn't just lost it, but they were telling me it was just a malfunction and selenas mirrors just needed to be realigned back into position.  But as I was saying, the three frames I saw were just an absolute mystery. The first image showed the star there in its normal place in the night sky, the second image showed a large eruption of that. It was similar to a star collapsing upon itself. There was a bright orange and it had an almost reflective haze to it. The third image it showed  was of nothingness. Through the lense was pure darkness.

 Then the last image… I'm sorry… but it's taking me a minute… I still don't believe it… what I saw, it looked like a snake or serpent made of planets with a nebula around a burning star in its head… it was devouring a planet and taking its matter… it's something I don't think I can get out of my head. But we started trying to follow it and we found a path! It's eating planets that wouldn't be able to contain life. Uninhabited planets rich in resources! 

We somehow found it again today and we are watching it. We've seen it go through three planets already, but we've also seen it turn away planets that can support life on them. It's showing intelligence! We can't believe what we are capturing. It's absolutely stunning! We can't take the pictures fast enough.

So…. Its been a few days since we found the celestial. We might have done something wrong… it's noticed us..  It was in the middle of devouring a frozen planet and then, it.. it turned direclty towards us. It has noticed us. We are doing our best to redirect the telescope, but it's like it's been locked. We can't get any access to it at all. We've tried everything from wiring and the pistons holding it in place, to actually hitting it with our heavy tools to try and break it. Nothing has worked… it's like it's being protected… it couldn't be the celestial could it?

I've reviewed the data… it's still coming toward us and it's moving fast. In a vast distance since it started heading towards us, it has covered light years in a matter of days. We can't even turn off the screens anymore. It's making us watch it. Watch as it moves at an astonishing speed towards earth… what.. what have we done?.

Its nearby now. I've watched it move. It's in the sol system now. I can feel its presence alone in my mind. The things it tells me about the universe… it's not malicious, it's sentient and it's telling me about other races and species… It's beautiful…

It's here now… everyone has left but me and my wife. She believes me. It's not here to harm us, it wants us to grow. But we have met too soon. It's come to erase our minds as a collective species on our planet. It let me speak to it, it consumes  material rich planets and recreates new ones with the matter in places life will grow upon them. There are more than homosapiens in the vastness of space. It told me many things about the universe…so many things. We aren't limited to this planet in our star system. We are a forgotten branch. The split from the rest of the civilization. And we've lost our way, alone in our remote location. It told me so much about other species it has encountered and who have visited us. I thanked it after our conversation.

I found this all written out in a notepad in my desk drawer. I don't know where it came from. We haven't registered or recorded anything like this in months, just a few other anomalies and other things that are pretty extraordinary.

But this feeling after I read this, I can't explain it so im posting it to share with you. It doesn't make sense, we would notice a massive celestial snake in the sky of our planet! But I feel it happened. We were not ready for it though. Its amazing, there's a massive snake in the night sky haha. Hey it's almost as crazy as these other stories my coworkers have told me and that I've seen the effects of. I think I'm going to talk to them some more and see what they have to say about some of our anomalies we've run into.

[ellaak]

SEVENTEEN RECOMMENDATION LIST

✉~Smau ✏~Written Series 🃁~Oneshot ☆~Headcanon ♡~Fluff ☔︎︎~Angst ☊~Crack ⌧~MDNI

Last Updated : July 24th 2024

CHOI SEUNGCHEOL Nothing Here Yet...

YOON JEONGHAN The Unoriginal Villain Origin Story 🃁 ~ ♡ ~ ☊ @twogyuu Miscommunication is a powerful plot weapon fr. This fic is good Daisies 🃁 ~ ☔︎︎ ~ ♡ @viastro I WAS NOT PREPARED FOR THIS EMOTIONAL FIC, MINJI IS EVIL Fake It Till You Make It 🃁 ~ ♡ @bitterie-sweetie THE FACT THAT THEY HAD EVERYONE FOOLED FOR YEARS Just One Day 🃁 ~ ☔︎︎ ~ ♡ @wonwoonlight STOP THIS WAS SO CUTE AND SAD. I Would 🃁 ~ ☔︎︎ ~ ♡ @writer-k-pop HE IS STANDERD. THE WAY HE TOLD THE HOST OFF The Breakup Soup 🃁 ~ ☔︎︎ ~ ♡ @hannie-dul-set I DID NOT EXPECT THE ENDING AT ALL AFTER EVERYTHING. GENUINELY ONE OF THE BEST JEONGHAN FICS I'VE READ Anything But 🃁 ~ ♡ @yoongiseesawmp3 THIS WAS SO CUTE, JEONGHAN SETTING THE BAR SO HIGH

JOSHUA HONG My Favorite Person 🃁 ~ ♡ @babyleostuff This fic giving me advice too

WEN JUNHUI HOME 🃁 ~ ☔︎︎ ~ ♡ @hazz-a-bear BREAKING MY HEART IN TWO. JUN :((

KWON SOONYOUNG Caller #17 🃁 ~ ☔︎︎ ~ ♡ @beomcoups THE ENDING HAD MY FIST IT MY MOUTH WITH TEARS STEAMING ON MY FACE

JEON WONWOO Nothing Here Yet...

LEE JIHOON Nothing Here Yet...

LEE SEOKMIN Nothing Here Yet...

KIM MINGYU When I Kissed The Teacher 🃁 ~ ♡ ~ ☊ @highvern THIS WAS SO SWEET THE WAY ARIN AND HANA TRIED SO HARD TO PLAY THE MATCHMAKERS

XU MINGHAO The Letter 🃁 ~ ☔︎︎ ~ ♡ @toruro This is definitely a must read Blocked Contacts 🃁 ~ ♡ @jae-bummer Annoying exs Painting 🃁 ~ ♡ @rubywonu Who says you can't find love in museums His Portrait 🃁 ~ ♡ @ahlovelightaflame Getting caught was embarrassing but at least we got something

BOO SEUNGKWAN You Say The Stupidest (Sweetest) Things 🃁 ~ ♡ @savventeen The concept was so cute When I Grow Up 🃁 ~ ☔︎︎ ~ ♡ @wooahaes THE WAY THEY MET HAS ME GUSHING Mission Possible 🃁 ~ ♡ @thepixelelf Sujeong was the op this whole fic The First Step 🃁 ~ ♡ @bluehoodiewoozi SEUNGKWAN WAS SUCH A SWEETHEART

CHWE HANSOL Work Husband 🃁 ~ ♡ ~ ☊ @wondernus The ending was so silly

LEE CHAN Love Guard 🃁 ~ ☔︎︎ ~ ♡ @tqmies Chan being an accidental asshole on their first meet but was actually smitten was so cute Scored! 🃁 ~ ☔︎︎ ~ ♡ @leejungchans By the end I was giggling so hard like a schoolgirl 08:23am 🃁 ~ ♡ @wheeboo THIS WAS SO CUTE (It's something I would def do) PANG! ✉ ~ ☔︎︎ ~ ♡ @kkumawrites HIS GF WAS A HOE SINCE DAY 1 FR

OT13 seventeen and how they would launch their relationship with idol!you ☆ ~ ♡ @hrts4hanniehae Fun to read Together 🃁 ~ ☔︎︎ ~ ♡ @wooahaes This was so sweet, crying at the end REDAMANCY ✉ ~ ☔︎︎ ~ ♡ - Minghao & Junhui @escapewriter I knew there was something off about [Redacted] since the beginning Svt At Your Christmas Party ☆ ~ ♡ ~ ☊ @alsktudy Silly Holiday Specials